Indiana woman arrested for alleged torture, killing of animals on social media
07/16/2020 3:41 pm PDT
via WXIN:
KOKOMO, Ind. (WXIN) -- New court documents show internet sleuths provided information to the FBI, which led to the arrest of a Kokomo woman for allegedly torturing and killing cats and dogs.
Krystal Cherika Scott, 19, faces federal charges in connection with an investigation into animal cruelty videos on social media, including one count of animal crushing and another another of creating animal crush videos -- a violation under the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act.
The probable cause affidavit defines animal crushing as “conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.”
Federal agents served a search warrant in Kokomo Tuesday, after Scott allegedly posted “images and videos of torturing and graphically killing cats and dogs by hanging, skinning and other means” between May 3 and July 8 on Instagram and other social media platforms.
Court documents say an Instagram account in question shared a message in a private chat: “I'll be killing a pregnant Siamese and a kitten later on today,” and, “I'll be dispatching two cats so I'll be posting the videos,” as well as pictures of a gray kitten, a black kitten and a Siamese cat inside a black wire cage.
According to Kokomo Police, a skinned cat was found in Scott's freezer and a glass jar was found with the legs of an unidentified animal. Scott told police that it was a coyote given to her by a friend, and that the frozen cats had died naturally and were put there after they died. During the search, the office said the FBI recovered numerous animal parts and skulls that were consistent with the size of cats and dogs. Agents also found three live dogs, 12 live cats and several lizards.
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